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Iâ€™m just so impatient with the argument that the world should be slowed down to help people who arenâ€™t smart enough to understand whatâ€™s going on. Itâ€™s in part because I grew up in a generation that benefited enormously from not doing that. Right? The baby boomers, when we were young, we had zero, zero patience for the idea that people who are in their fifties in the â€™70s and â€™80s should somehow be shielded from cultural changes because somehow the stuff that we were doing was upsetting them. So, now itâ€™s our turn and we ought to just suck it up.

Well, I’m one of those baby boomers (61) who had little patience for our elders as you’ve described. Now, as a educational technology trainer, I have little patience for those in their 30s-50s who haven’t a clue on what’s going on (with technology) in their classrooms and students’ lives. Many (not all) just don’t get it and brush it off with an “oh well” or “it’s a kids thing.” The good news is I also work with seniors in their 70s & 80s who email, video chat, Skype, blog, etc., etc. “Feed the rabbits….AMEN!

Over the last dozen years or so, I’ve helped a lot of teachers struggling to “catch up” with technology. In 1995, I had a lot of sympathy for the older teacher who would bashfully tell me, “I’m a complete idiot with the computer” and I’d do my best to move them along.

Now, I’m not so sympathetic. How can you still say that with a straight face? Where have you been? A few years from now, will you tell your grandchildren that in the midst of a revolutiopn to rival the printing press, you were sitting on the sidelines? And many of these same people still turn around and tell students they should be “life-long learners.”

I still do my best to help them (it’s my job, after all), but I can only do so much to help someone who obviously isn’t all that interested in heling him/herself. In 2008, it feels less like fearful confusion and more like willful ignorance.

Well, it sounds like you’re describing a lot of the Social Studies and English teachers I met in college and in my school. It’s like there’s an understanding that only Math and Science teachers need to know Math. Humanities are somehow exempt.

For the record, I know plenty of Math and I’m not afraid to bring it into my Social Studies classroom. I tutor my students every chance I get, and I’m still a bit unsure if it’s a compliment or an insult when they tell me I should have been a math teacher.

Back to the topic of the Shirkey article, though, another part I found interesting was about attention span. He does a decent job of suggesting that people can maintain a long term engagement over, say, an entire season of a TV show.

What he ignores, though, is the ability to actually sit through the TV show. Compare modern TV shows and movies to those that were produced 20+ years ago. You’ll notice in newer films/shows that there are many times more edits and changes in camera angles. A professor of mine once described each change in camera angles as a “slap in the face” to keep the viewer paying attention.

Sure, we can maintain interest in something over the long term, but I’d argue that our short term attention span (and that of our children) is being conditioned away through high-paced media, video games, and the writing style of the internet. Or maybe I just have a touch of ADHD.

Thanks for the commment, Brian. I’m still kind of fence sitting on that one. Not sure if this is better or worse, but it’s different for sure. I know if I showed a traditional academic how I read and write and organize information, she would chuckle. But it works for me (I think.) I do think, however, that there is a necessary focus that is required to tune into what is most important in all the potential information we come across. And that is why Shirky’s description of filters is also compelling to me. We haven’t found the right filters yet, by and large, and it will be interesting to see what they eventually become.

And laziness, I think. I’m always amazed when teachers especially are resistant to learning or at least considering change. I know it’s tough, but we do have a higher responsibility, I think, to be as relevant and effective and as knowledgeable as we can be.

My reply is based solely on the quote and I am not generalizing it to infer that it is aimed at “slow, stupid, lazy teachers” as others have.

I’m with her as a baby-boomer, who was self-centered, heady, and certain of so many things. I was an “in your face” individual without patience, like she (still) appears to be. Its the same with any generation, at least from the days of Socrates on…

That said, it is important to place what is happening today in an historical context. The internet and computers have changed things dramatically. They didn’t exist then, in the manner that they do now.

We are living in a time of accelerating change, exponential information growth , and instant communication.

What is missing is reflection. It has become an anomaly, a foreign concept. It takes time fully absorb and integrate information…

The world doesnâ€™t need to be â€œslowedâ€ down for those deemed to be impatient, idiotic, resistant, lazy, stupid, clueless, or not smart enough, simply because they canâ€™t (or choose not to) keep up with those in the know. The world needs to catch up to the fact that there are those who learn differently. I am a baby boomer, a mother of a special needs child, a teacher and … yes, I enthusiastically embrace and use wikis, podcasts, blogs and so on in my classroom. The words offend, and are so reminiscent of a by-gone era of teachers. Itâ€™s time to move on.

I like this quote. I think that it very much applies to everyday life. I am in the younger generation right now and I understand the people that were baby boomers and frustrated with the older generations when it comes to technology and such. It is hard to have patients with some of the older generation when they have a tendency to pick up on technology a bit slower. The thing is that those that pick it up slower usually aren’t to supportive of the technology and don’t see much of a reason for it or don’t see how it pertains to them because their old ways are the only way to go.

The idea that “we” should slow down would be OK, except that other countries are NOT slowing down–they’re passing us up and will continue to do so if American educators (young and old-ish) don’t jump on the bandwagon and embrace 21st century learning.